KGTV
KGTV, virtual and VHF digital channel 10, is an ABC-affiliated television station licensed to San Diego, California, United States. The station is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company. KGTV's studios are located on Air Way in the Riverview-Webster section of San Diego, and its transmitter is located on Mount Soledad in La Jolla. KGTV operates digital translator KZSD-LP (channel 20), which allows homes with issues receiving KGTV's VHF signal or only a UHF antenna to receive KGTV in some form. History The San Diego area's third-oldest television station first went on the air on September 13, 1953 as NBC affiliate KFSD-TV. The station's original owner was Airfan Radio Corporation, which also owned NBC Radio Network affiliate KFSD (600 AM, now KOGO). Under terms of the initial construction permit award, Airfan sold one-third ownership of the stations to two other firms who competed separately for channel 10. In 1954 the KFSD stations were purchased by investment firm, Fox, Wells & Rogers. The publishers of Newsweek magazine took a minority (about 46 percent) share of the stations in 1957, four years before the periodical was itself sold to the Washington Post Company. In 1961, channel 10 changed its call letters to KOGO-TV; the radio stations also adopted the KOGO callsign. The broadcasting division of Time-Life purchased KOGO-TV and its sister radio stations in 1962. This deal was reached after failed attempts to sell the properties to Triangle Publications and United Artists among others; and after the Washington Post Company's Post-Newsweek Stations division disclosed it was not interested in acquiring full ownership. As part of a sale announced in late 1970, KOGO-AM-FM-TV was sold to McGraw-Hill along with Time-Life's other radio/television combinations in Denver, Indianapolis and Grand Rapids, Michigan; and KERO-TV in upstate Bakersfield. When the sale was concluded in June 1972, the purchase price for the entire group was just over $57 million. However, in order to comply with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s new restrictions on concentration of media ownership, McGraw-Hill was required to sell the radio stations in San Diego, Indianapolis, Denver, and Grand Rapids. Time-Life would later take WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids out of the final deal. KERO-TV, KLZ-TV (now KMGH-TV) in Denver, and WFBM-TV (now WRTV) in Indianapolis were retained by McGraw-Hill along with KOGO-TV, which changed to its current call letters KGTV as a result of the sale due to FCC regulations in place at the time that prohibited TV and radio stations in the same market, but different ownership from sharing the same callsigns. Switch to ABC The ABC affiliation in San Diego had belonged to XETV (channel 6), a station licensed across the international border to Tijuana, Mexico, since 1956 under special agreement between the FCC and Mexican authorities. In 1973 KCST-TV (channel 39), San Diego's UHF independent station, prevailed in a years-long attempt to secure ABC programming in the market; KCST claimed that an American television network should not be affiliated with a station located outside U.S. borders. At the time of the switch ABC was still the third-ranked network, behind second-rated NBC and perennial leader CBS. Over the next several years, however, ABC began to experience ratings growth in their primetime programming and rose to first place during 1975–76, finishing the year with ten programs in Nielsen's top twenty. In San Diego, KCST-TV experienced a carryover effect and also rose to first place locally, knocking KGTV down to third behind CBS station KFMB-TV (channel 8). But ABC was never happy with having been forced onto the UHF dial in San Diego, and the unprecedented success gave the network the impetus to actively upgrade its affiliate roster nationwide. Despite having more than a year remaining in its current agreement with NBC, KGTV announced it was joining ABC in June 1976. After KCST-TV (now KNSD) signed with NBC, the switch between the two stations took place on June 27, 1977. KGTV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 10, on February 17, 2009, the original target date in which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 25 to VHF channel 10. Due to their current Scripps ownership, the station makes disclaimers regularly, especially in its medical reporting, that it has no ties to the local Scripps Health system, a completely separate organization created in 1923 from a bequest from Ellen Browning Scripps, a sister to Scripps founder E. W. Scripps, as Scripps Health personnel are regularly asked to comment on medical stories in the San Diego area, including by KGTV. Category:ABC Affiliates Category:Channel 10 Category:Television channels and stations established in 1953 Category:1953 Category:San Diego Category:California Category:Former NBC Affiliates Category:Former NTA Film Network affiliates Category:E.W. Scripps Company Category:VHF Category:ABC California Category:1961 Category:1972 Category:MeTV Affiliates Category:Laff Affiliates Category:Escape Affiliates